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Imperialism
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What is Imperialism?

Imperialism refers to the practice by which powerful nations extend political, economic, and cultural dominance over weaker territories and peoples. It appears frequently in political science, history, and international relations courses because it shaped the modern world order in fundamental ways. Students are drawn to the topic because it sits at the intersection of power, ideology, and human consequence, raising questions about how Europe and other dominant nations built empires across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and beyond. Its connections to colonialism, racial hierarchy, industrialization, and both World Wars make it academically rich and persistently relevant to understanding contemporary global politics.

The papers archived on this topic reflect a wide range of approaches. Many take a historical and regional lens, examining imperialism in Africa during the nineteenth century, its aftermath in Asia following World War II, or its dynamics in the Caribbean Basin through foreign policy analysis. Others are comparative, tracing connections between industrial capitalism and imperial expansion, or linking imperialism to racial othering as a broader ideological system. Some papers engage in literary criticism, using Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness to examine how imperial ideology was represented and challenged in literature. Still others adopt a broad survey approach, covering the Protestant Reformation, New Imperialism, and the lead-up to global conflict.

A strong essay on imperialism requires a focused thesis that moves beyond simply cataloguing events toward explaining causes, mechanisms, or consequences. Evidence drawn from specific regions, time periods, or policy decisions carries more weight than sweeping generalizations. Writers should be careful to avoid treating imperialism as a single uniform phenomenon — its expression differed significantly across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas — and a well-scoped essay will acknowledge that complexity without losing argumentative clarity.

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Paper Undergraduate

Political agendas and agency culture in the Department of Homeland Security's creation

The attacks of September 11, 2001 exposed weaknesses in the government's defense of the nation resulting in Congress creating a new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, which combined a variety…

Kwame Anthony Appiah on class, gender, and race in colonialism

¶ … Inclusive Approach Reflecting a More Inclusive World

Paper Undergraduate

Hobsbawm's conceptualization of the thirty-one year war

Eric Hobsbawm's magisterial the Age of Extremes is packed with facts and interpretations. Its ambitious field is world history from 1914 to 1991, from the First World War to the downfall of the Soviet Union.

Essay Doctorate

American industrialization, urbanization, and reform from 1865 to 1945

Classical and laissez faire economic theories that had developed in a period when capitalism was small-scale no longer applied to a system of giant industrial and financial cartels and monopolies. By the 1880s and 1890s, as the U.S. became the leading industrial power in the world, it was already clear to Populists and Progressives that previous political and economic theories about capitalism and the proper role of the state would have to be greatly revised—in a more regulatory and socialistic direction, even if the actual "s" word was not used. John Maynard Keynes became the most important economist during the era of Fordism and industrial capitalism, and his views generally reflected those of Progressives, social democrats and New Dealers. He argued that capitalism did not produce full employment in the absence of fiscal and monetary stimulus from the central government, which would increase aggregate demand (Mankiw 770). Reduced government spending, balanced budgets and austerity measures were not the correct way to deal with depressions, although this had been the standard government response in the depressions of the 1840s, 1870s and 1890s—

Paper Undergraduate

Industrialization and development: Kiely's comparative analysis

¶ … industrialization that started in the early eighteenth century and in Britain and swept first Europe and then spread through North America and then most of the countries of whole world by the turn of the twentieth…

Paper Doctorate

The Iroquois Confederacy's influence on American democratic formation

Contact between Europeans and Native Americans undoubtedly shaped the course of New World history. Political alliances enabled strategic partnerships for trade as well as land settlements.

Paper Undergraduate

American imperialism from westward expansion to twentieth-century intervention

Laying the Foundation for American Imperialism

Paper Undergraduate

Che Guevara's cultural influences and revolutionary ideals

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, more popularly known simply as Che Guevara was born on June 14, 1928. He is perhaps the most controversial Argentine Marxist Rebel and Revolutionary in the books of history.

Paper Undergraduate

King Leopold II's conquest of Congo under the guise of humanitarianism

King Leopold's Ghost is an amazing though disturbing account of one man's ruthless ambition and carnage that resulted in mass murder, subjugation, horrifying cruelty and severe exploitation.

Research Paper Undergraduate

Democracy, freedom, and economic development according to Sen

According to Sen, democracy is associated with the freedom of thought and action and, deriving from this, the freedom of the individual, political freedom, freedom of the press etc.

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